IN BRIEF:

How much will we be missed?

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June 25, 2013:,

Jun 25 2013, 22:22pm ist

updated: Jun 25 2013, 22:22pm ist

Recently, a spiritual lecture in Hindi aired on TV, elicited my attention. Especially, two of its seemingly simple lines seemed so profound in their depth and meaning. Its somewhat crude translation goes like this – “When you came to the world, you were crying, while people around you were laughing with joy. Live your life in such a manner that when you go away quitting the world, you will be laughing, while others around cry.”

In other words, while we are born as babies, we’d be bawling while others related to us would be bubbling with glee and laughter. We should lead such a significant life that when we bid the final adieu to the world, we’d be brimming over with bountiful happiness, while others around would be blubbering with tears.

Well, how many of us are able to create that sort of ineffaceable positive impact on others, such that they feel the void or lacunae in our absence? This is applicable even when we are alive. For instance, when we have come back home after a long holiday jaunt, how many folks tell us that they missed us? Or, when we’re shifting residence to another area, how many among our newspaper, milk, veggie/fruit vendors, tell us they would be missing us? Or, when we quit/retire from a workplace, how many of our colleagues would shed a tear or two?

Interestingly, in yet another philosophical discourse that I had heard months back, the spiritual guru was saying, “In these modern times, wherein one finds surfeit self-centredness in people, feelings of empathy and compassion are slowly extinguishing.

We have become so apathetic that when we see people around us suffering from physical/mental distress, leave alone making an effort to mitigate their agony, we flinch even to speak to them, especially if they happen to hail from low social/economic strata.

We haven’t realised the so-called politically or financially powerful folks, who once lived on earth, presuming themselves as invincible, are all buried today in the same graves as the commoners. In other words, whether the person is an intelligent or a nitwit, an aristocrat or an indigent person, a good-looking or not, each of them heads towards the same place, post his/her life. It’s just like a pack of playing cards, wherein the images of king, queen, etc, have values only while playing. Once the game is over, all cards bear the same value when they get shoved in the same common pack.”

So, when we have lived life, having made a positive difference in the lives of people around us, by being the reason behind someone’s happiness or success or even smiles, surely we would be missed in our absence. Really, there could be nothing more disgusting and demoralising, when people instead of missing us in our absence, mutter under their breath “good riddance of bad rubbish.”

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